Clinical depression may accelerate aging process, study says

Los Angeles Times

11-14-13

Nov. 13--Severe depression doesn't just affect the mind, it may also attack the
body on a cellular level by speeding up the aging process, according to a new
study.

In a paper published Tuesday in the journal Molecular Psychology, researchers in
California and the Netherlands said they found an association between major
depressive disorder, or MDD, and accelerated cellular aging.

Specifically, study authors said that after examining the white blood cells of
more than 2,400 Dutch study participants, they found that people with clinical
depression had shorter telomeres than their healthy peers.

Telomeres are strands of protective DNA that cap the tips of chromosomes within
a cell. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres get a little bit shorter.
Eventually the telomeres become so small that the cell begins to shut itself
down.

Scientists have also linked shortened telomeres to various age-related health
problems like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and mental decline. Now,
researchers believe they are linked to depression as well.

While people who suffer clinical depression may avoid physical exercise and
adopt other unhealthy practices like heavy drinking and smoking, study authors
said those behaviors did not fully account for the rapid shortening of telomeres
observed in clinically depressed study subjects.

Researchers said that based on telomere length, study subjects who suffered
severe clinical depression for a period of two years actually aged seven to 10
years, when compared to healthy people.

"The most severely and chronically depressed patients had the shortest
telomeres," said lead author Josine Verhoeven, a psychiatric researcher at
Amsterdam's VU University Medical Center.

"Overall, this study provides convincing evidence for the suggestion than an
emotional stressful condition, such as MDD, may truly impact on the physical
'wear and tear' of a person's body resulting in accelerated biological aging,"
wrote Verhoeven and colleagues.

However, study authors said that they could not prove a direct cause and effect,
and there may be other factors at play.

___

(c)2013 the Los Angeles Times

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